Tell Me If I'm Right”

Laraine: “Tell Me If I'm Right” is a good beginning plan for starting from zero and working towards that first $300 paycheck. Modern public libraries make almost every piece of equipment and every service needed for a virtual office, available for free. Faxing documents back and forth still requires equipment and a fax over internet service. Perhaps even the faxing fee can be eliminated, if both parties have access to a scanner and can attach the scanned pages as an e-mail attachment, perhaps as an Adobe PDF file.

The library provides the office building itself, utilities, the cubicle and computer equipment, and all the needed high speed internet services. It is easy to sign up for free e-mail, some online file storage space, some type of fax replacement, online money exchange, and even space to make your own small web pages is often available free. The virtual office in the cloud is real now, not a futuristic concept.

Paypal is the most common way to exchange money online, but there are alternatives starting up, and most of them charge only a small percentage of the exchanged payment. One good thing about Paypal is you can send someone money even if you only know their e-mail address. Paypal takes care of e-mailing the recipient, asking him to enter his Paypal account or sign him up if he doesn't have one, and completing the money transfer. Other money exchange sites may require you to know the other party's credit card number or checking account, but they may be cheaper per transaction.

Microsoft and Google each have free word processors available online, they are part of hot mail or gmail respectively. In fact, both products are entire office suites: word, spreadsheet, data-base, and slide show documents can be made and exchanged with either online package.

One service most libraries lack is a way to record audio and video. So, making you-tube videos to promote affiliate products may involve equipment purchases. The other downside of the library is the one-hour limit on cubicle use. But if you are organized, it is not too much trouble to move to other stations as they become available.

I would like to see someone open a chain of virtual office locations across the country, many cubicles like the library, but they rent them to you hourly. Include more services and equipment: faxing, high volume printing with optional cover binding, cameras and microphones to record and edit professional quality lessons suitable for YouTube or other online sites. I saw one service where you can record in front of a green screen, then edit in a virtual desk/office that looks absolutely real.

I have already taught most of Microsoft Office in professional settings. I want to get more familiar with the newer versions, especially the online office suites. I can teach people how to set up a system of daily or weekly backing up all their computer files. Good back ups allow a business to resume after a disaster. If a fire destroyed your office building, you could rent space and equipment at a building nearby. But it is the backup of your correspondence, files, faxes, records of all kinds that make the difference between resuming business or being forced to close down.